Aug 17, 2012
The recently-inaugurated 28ha Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), Kuala Lumpur's new financial centre, will be a catalyst for the country's growth, according to Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Named after Najib's father, TRX will symbolise "the future of Malaysia as the catalyst for economic and financial growth," as well as "a nucleus of global talent," he said.
A report by the Financial Times noted that the US$8 billion (RM25 billion) project is being overseen by state-owned investment agency 1Malaysia Development and is slated to rise near the Petronas Twin Towers.
Despite an anaemic global growth in the economy, Malaysia has braved to implement such a huge project.
Fortunately, Malaysia's economy has defied challenges, with its gross domestic product (GDP) for Q2 increasing 5.4 percent, better than consensus estimates of 4.6 percent.
Factors that contributed to the robust GDP include lending by well-capitalised banks, big-ticket government spending, and healthy consumer demand driven by the pay-hike for civil servants.
Most of the impetus driving the growth is due to the economic transformation programme (ETP) initiated by PM Najib in 2009. This included dozens of government-backed projects that aims to increase per capita income to US$15,500 (RM48,576) by 2020 from US$9,600 (RM30,086) in 2011.
Christian de Guzman, an analyst at rating agency Moody's, said he was once sceptical of ETP's ability to spur private sector development, but he is now more convinced of its economic effect.
